Benjamin Tusten

Benjamin Tusten (11 December 1743-22 July 1779) was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the New York militia during the American Revolutionary War.

Biography
Benjamin Tusten was born on 11 December 1743 in Southhold, Long Island, New York. In 1746, his family moved to Goshen in Orange County, and he was educated in Jamaica (now in Queens, New York City), learning Greek and Latin and becoming a physician. In 1777, he became a colonel of the Goshen Regiment of Militia, and he fought against Joseph Brant's Iroquois warriors at the Battle of Minisink. During the ensuing massacre of the hastily-assembled militiamen, a wounded Tusten refused to leave his wounded men, and he was killed when he took a tomahawk to the head. The town of Tusten in Sullivan County is named for him.